ABSTRACT

Of Critical Theory and its Theorists is an intelligent , accessible overview of the entire Critical Theory Tradition, written by one of the leading experts on the subject. Filled with original insights and valuable historical narratives, Of Critical Theory and Its Theorists covers the work of major philosphical thinkers such as Benjamin, Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse and Habermas and revisits the contributions of lesser-known figures such as Karl Korsch and Ernst Bloch. Bronner measures the writing of these theorists against each other, postmodernist philosophers and the critical tradition reaching back to Hegel. Of Critical Theory and Its Thoerists presents new insights useful to experienced scholars and offers clear summaries for students making this book an ideal introduction to the debates surrounding one of the most important intellectual traditions of the 20th Century.

chapter 1|8 pages

1 Introduction

From the First to the Second Edition

chapter 2|28 pages

2 Sketching the Lineage

The Critical Method and the Idealist Tradition

chapter 3|12 pages

Karl Korsch

Western Marxism and the Origins of Critical Theory

chapter 4|17 pages

4 Philosophical Anticipations

A Commentary on the “Reification” Essay of Georg Lukács

chapter 5|9 pages

Utopian Projections

In Honor of Ernst Bloch

chapter 6|19 pages

Horkheimer's Road

chapter 7|20 pages

Rescuing the Fragments

On the Messianic Materialism of Walter Benjamin

chapter 8|21 pages

Political Aesthetics in the 1930s

In Memory of Christopher Johnson

chapter 9|19 pages

9 Dialectics at a Standstill

A Methodological Inquiry into the Philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno

chapter 10|16 pages

Fromm in America

chapter 11|17 pages

11 Utopia, Aesthetics, Revolution

Herbert Marcuse and the Radical Imagination

chapter 13|17 pages

13 Critical Theory and Civil Society

Political Interests, Private Passions, and the Public Sphere

chapter 14|28 pages

Points of Departure

Sketches for a Critical Theory with Public Aims